FP S01E02 Fr. Thaddeus – Spiritual Talks (Part 2/5)

In the second part of the interview Elder Thaddeus talks about God’s admonishment and obedience, self-pity and prayer as well as the gift of free grace.

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica:

“Holy Fathers say that the most difficult thing is to pray. However, when you are zealous and when you get over self-pity, then the heart starts to love prayer.

The grace radiates, it is felt. Lay people have it, man! There was a man from Bosnia, the capital city, Banja Luka. A young man would come many times. He prayed with Jesus prayer long time… I told him it would be like that until his thought was not captured by anything in this world. As soon as you are captured, whatever it may be, you will hear the heart stops prayering. Your heart prayes without your will. You talk but you constantly hear it. When you get free grace, you cannot describe it with words. Only the one who received free grace can understand it.

You know how you used to be. You used to get angry. Now you cannot get angry. No person can get you angry. You cannot understand that. And then you will feel unspeakable joy…”

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Orthodox Teaching of the Elders (otelders) is a multimedia library and an online framework featuring Christian Spirituality through voices of contemporary Spiritual Fathers. Modern-day Elders' reflections on the Ancient Faith of the Christian Church (modern video Philokalia).